Blog Sponsorship hoax?

I have been getting emails regarding the authenticity of this Blog sponsorship offer:

I’m interested in finding out whether or not your Blog accepts sponsors. What I am interested in is sending you a list of keywords which I would like linked to certain URLS (all family friendly sites). These links would go into your Blog entries or underneath them, however you see best fit.

Example1: http://www.thegeekchannel.com/2006/02/18/so-what-is-a-day-trader/ which shows a sponsor link with them keyword “Stock Option Investing”.

Example2: http://kimzey.blogspot.com/2005/12/shower-humidity.html where the link is below the post. “Supporter area:” could even be posted above the links to differentiate them from your content.

We are offering $2.50 per link, possibly more if the Blog meets certain criteria. If you’re interested please send a paypal email address that we may send your payments to. If paypal is not available we can arrange for other payment options. Also, the link information is submitted in excel format. It’s fairly simple but you must have some understanding of excel format.

I look forward to supporting your Blog; it’s a good one!

Standard link per blog entry is around 5$ so 2.50$ wouldn’t get those hoax bells ringing. However, there are 2 things which did not sit well with me. First, blogs have to be approved (traffic, etc.) They could be offered but only blog owners with relatively high traffic are approached. Second, those interested in blog sponsorships do not immediately ask for paypal email addresses before the details have been ironed out.

After receiving this in ALL 4 of my email-addresses and after having been asked by several persons of its authenticity, I mailed back a response. I asked for more details, without giving my paypal address. To date, I still have not received an answer. I have, however, received even more inquiries from bloggers regarding this blog sponsorship offer.

Maybe I am jumping the gun but it sure looks a lot like one of those paypal hoaxes you get via email. Although, this time, it sure looks a lot like it is from a Filipino (based on the bloggers who received the same emails).

Maybe I am adding 1 and 1 and coming up with 3. But, then again, I could also be right.

MARC: For a long time now, I (along with another Pinoy blogger) am being paid to link products/services (from lawyers to blinds) for 5$ per post, per product, per blog. YOu can actually have the same post in different blogs and you have a choice which product you want to blog about. All one has to do is show the post with the link and paypal payment is immediately processed. No other conditions.

MPARAZ: As for buying links… hmmm.., could be. But, is he that stupid that he sends random mails without checking traffic? That’s 2.50USD per entry for what?! It sure does not make sense.

As for takers being dubious… sa internet naman, maraming dubious ang existence. Point is, weird yung pag offer. Although, I could be wrong. Baka amateur lang talaga. We will see.

As “example 1” from thegeekchannel.com, I thought I would take a moment and comment about sponsored posting. I’ve been doing this for a while and try to sprinkle in a reasonable amount of advertising and sponsored posting with my traditional articles, and have successfully managed to sustain an income of roughly $300/month per blog for some time now. With a handful of blogs, I imagine that you can see this works very well.

Whether or not it be a hoax, I don’t know, but I’ve always been paid (asking for payment up front most of the time), and as of yet I haven’t had a problem.